Choice: A RWBY College AU
by elfenlied1012
Summary: After Ruby Rose lost her mother opportunities were slim until the Long family stepped in. Now in a new college, new country, new home, with new people she has all the opportunities in the world. All she has to do is chose. RWBY College A.U. Romance/slice of life. Contains White Rose among other things.
1. Chapter 1

*****RWBY College A.U. Romance/Slice of life wanted to write one, but give it a bit of an interesting spin, so the setting is a bit more scenic, some place I lived for a short while. More on this at the bottom Additional edits as of May 5  
**

**Chapter 1: A Foreign Homecoming**

**Ruby Rose**

There is an intrinsically moody element to anyone capable of writing fiction. A required feeling of general discontent with reality to shy away from it in designing your own world, rules, place and most importantly people. At least as far as Ruby knew. Her own scribblings were most effectively written on her worst days. Not surprisingly, the day her life went from a four year plan at Portland State kindly paid for by mom, to using that same money to cover sudden medical expenses quickly leading up to that same mom's funeral, the same mom dying, was the day that she started work on her most expansive and massive writing project yet, a sort of half steampunk half cyberpunk fantasy adventure story. The world had been flushed out, peoples histories cultures maps, a lot of google docs and a few scattered notes written on stake and shake plate mats. Mom passing brought her a lot of heartache, but a lot of inspiration, too.

One thing it hadn't helped Ruby with was making characters, at least not any she cared about. So just like then, Ruby sat herself down to try and channel her emotions into something awesome. This time, however, it wasn't her bed she was laying on. It was the rough cotton sheets of the sleeper train room. She had, instead of her pc, a coffee stained notebook. Instead of the serenity of silence she had the rumbling sound of the busy train, and instead of the loss of her mother, Ruby tried to be motivated by her exodus from America. Problem was for how absolutely depressed Ruby had felt about everything, here sitting silently in her train car staring into the void of blank paper in her red notebook, she was actually a little excited.

Sure, traveling alone from Portland to Madrid, then onto a train to a place she had never heard of in a country where, sadly due to her propensity to doodle in Spanish class, she had no idea how to speak the language of, was perhaps scary. Double that with going to a University she had never seen and again did not even speak the same language as the professors. Plus talking to people and making new friends. Talking to people was scary enough when she knew them. Perhaps the most anxiety filled thing in her life to date. Yet still it was an adventure. Sure, not so much hunting monsters in the forest adventure, but an adventure.

"And Yang's there, and dad, too," Ruby whispered only to herself with a slight grin, scratching some penciled in image into her notebook, one of the many first drafts of a character bio and picture. Not much use for scribblings in a novel, but maybe she could do art pages every once in a while. That would be cool, at least she thought so.

"¿Señorita, estás despierto?" A young sounding woman called from behind the cabin door, knocking likely on the thin false wood barrier. Ruby hated this part, every few hours someone from the train would come by and politely as they could tell her something or ask her what she wanted for dinner, either way she didn't understand a word of it and always made a fool of herself. Honestly, she just felt bad being the jerk no one could understand.

"Uno momento!" she called back, mustering her best single semester of Spanish she could, tossing the notebook to the side of her lone little night stand. In a rush she got back up dancing between the two trunks of luggage she brought and her over stuffed backpack all the way to the door. Just as she suspected it, a young smiling woman was there at the door, giving some update Ruby wouldn't understand.

"Su parada, El Vale, es en cinco minutos señorita." Voice sweet as summer, language beautiful as any could be, but still Ruby didn't understand a word. Well minutos was probably minutes, or meters. She was fairly certain they used meters after all.

"Perdon, no hablo espanol." Ruby replied with her most apologetic smile and hope that her batched Spanish would get by. The other woman smiled back, nodding without seeming mad or frustrated, much to Ruby's pleasure.

"English is better?" she replied in a thick, but understandable accent earning a very happy nod from Ruby. It was absolutely awesome being an anglophone sometimes, everyone seemed to learn English everywhere else as far as Ruby had known. Such an unfair advantage, one she would never complain about. "Your stop El Vale, is in five minutes. Have a good trip." Understandably, the attendant made as swift an exist as manners would allow, the rest of the sleeper cars stopping at what Ruby had heard was the newest big college town in the country, though Yang had always said the town was always there, just no one cared till now. Stepping out of her shutout room she understand how different the world old was here .

In the distance, only the glass window, motion, and a few thousand meters separating her from it, was a real life castle, keep and all, the tan stone walls wrapping around the hillside into the valley to form divisions in the town, eventually merging with a huge facility that Ruby could only guess was the college. The sight of it was strangely jarring to Ruby. She had written a thousand half-finished manuscripts that described every facet and facility of a castle, from stone to stone, yet never had she seen one, or anything as old as this. This was now officially her new adventure, the thought of it tugging at her lips into a smile. All the horrible things of late had not stifled the kid in her. Now she so had to go there and touch it.

The train began to twist down into the valley and so Ruby ran back into her room, tossing the scattered notebooks into her backpack and gathering the mess of luggage. For the first time since she got aboard the train the atmosphere of that room felt suffocating, the girl wanted to be outside, wanted to touch that Castle, breath foreign air aside from the the airport and train station. Soon enough she would get what she wished. Loaded up with other passengers, Ruby became one of the many in the mass that crowded around the exit. Outside the train had entered the city, the similar styled two story buildings with white or tan facades and red tiled roofs passing by at a blurred speed slowly becoming clearer as the train slowed down to a halt.

The station itself didn't open up to Ruby until the flood began to subside. The great human mass stepping off the bullet train onto the floor. Ruby alone stood at the train doors letting everyone pass with a backpack on her back and two trunks in her hands. Frozen for a moment, nervousness and excitement fighting a bloody battle in her, the crimson haired girl studied her place. A station bigger than any bus station in she knew of in America was painted a yellow in front of her the spanish flag flapping above a huge tan brick clock tower marked with a twenty four hour scheme. A smile curled on her lips, Ruby felt the excitement win for a moment, and at the foot of the train she stepped off the platform.

Heavy as her bags were, Ruby had no problem pulling the luggage around. Exactly where they were being pulled was the problem. In their emails back and forth it was agreed they would pick Ruby up at the station. That was all well and good, but the place was massive, containing multiple entries, exits, and counters. Oh, and endless useless signs. Convinced there was no point in picking a specific spot Ruby decided on her original goal, that Castle.

Outside the heat was surprisingly non-existent in the northern part of the country. Instead, cool air greeted Ruby as she took a walk outside the station lobby out to the front courtyard. It was a massive plaza of no real roads to speak of, only brick paths allowing very little traffic from cars, putting plenty of people on foot. Center of the plaza, directly opposite the highest keep she could see above the towns builds, was a fountain of marble and a statue of two knights. They seemed almost a morbidly grey, yet sleek and sad. Seemed like something for a story.

"You break it you buy it, sis." While breaking a marble statue three times Ruby's size seemed daunting, she made no complaints or comeback. Forgetting everything about the statue, Ruby's mind locked on that sweet voice that spoke behind her.

"Yang!" And there she was behind her, that glorious woman. Yang was just two years older than Ruby, but she always seemed leagues ahead. She was taller, faster, more sociable, and as far as the little sister could fathom beyond imaginably gorgeous. Yang was one of those ridiculously beautiful people, the ones that depending on how much evil in in your heart you have to laugh at how out of the world it is or be hateful and envious of it. Ruby remembered always being in the first camp, despite thinking of herself as admittedly a mild sort of pretty compared to her older sister and for sure that had not changed in the year since Yang last visited America. The older sister looked stunning on her motorcycle, decked in all yellow, tan, and black, chest out and chin high. Ruby could never think ill will toward her though, Yang was the best oaf of a half sister Ruby could dream of and loved her forever more for it. "What are you doing here? Isn't dad suppose to pick me up?"

"Nope, I called it. You're riding with me. Now shut up and hug me, it's been literally forever!" Yang demanded with a flip of her golden hair and the shut off of her engine. Ruby didn't hesitate for a moment, charging in a tackle she collided with Yang. Ruby was so dainty compared to big tough Yang. She barely made a dent in her sturdy posture and that so exactly what she wanted right now.

"It's been a year, don't be a drama llama," Ruby replied with a laugh taking in all the warmth of Yang's hug, her scent, her presence. Oh how Ruby had needed her for all this crazy nonsense. It was so ironic that just when her world crumbled after taking every summer before to see Ruby, Yang didn't this year. She had some summer class, not her fault. None of it mattered now, Ruby's big sister was here and that was awesome.

"What happened to you? Not rocking shiny gothic look anymore?" That 'shiny gothic' was what Ruby would normally dress in. Boots skirt and top all in black and red, her hair was already a little red so she went for a deep black red mix her mom showed her how to dye. Not so much of the gothic in a cosmetic or cultural way. Ruby went mostly natural on makeup and always tried to have a really sunny disposition, but she liked the gothic fashion look, felt natural to her. Felt right for her to wear, but that style had a… cultural caveat to it Ruby didn't want as a first impression for the Long family. She was the perfect B student that never got into trouble, but people always had hang ups on things. Instead she dressed in some jeans and a red hoodie. She could dress like herself once everyone got more use to Ruby.

"It's all packed up, I'm the same as last summer time, and the time before that. I, uhhh, don't seem to grow." Ruby's cheeks turned a little red aware she still looked so young at eighteen. Enough people still thought she was a freshman in high-school, really embarrassing. Yang just smiled and looked at her with a raised brow.

"Come on, sis, you've grown, only like five years ago you were a drying rack!" Yang playful retorted. 'Lewd!' Though she wasn't wrong exactly. Couldn't argue that with Yang. She had gone to see her every summer since Ruby was around six so she had nice little yearly snapshots to watch Ruby grow. Since she was a baby and Yang was a strange girl who couldn't talk. Ruby realized now how much she wished Yang had taught her spanish instead of Ruby teaching her english. So many problems averted, but maybe… No, Ruby wouldn't change a single memory of them together. "We got places to go girl. You ready to meet the family? We got a feast planned out sis. A real big shabang. Dad's like insanely excited," Yang added tying the trunks to either side of the motorcycle, an arrangement that made Ruby just a little nervous, but hey, who knew better than Yang about this stuff.

"What about, uh, your mom? Is she excited?" Ruby asked swaying from side to side in a nervous metronome. That was the one kind of unknown she had avoided thinking about. Ruby's mom had always been really chill with Yang, loved her, treated her like her own daughter, but Ruby's mom was not the one married to Mr. Long. Ruby's mom was the other woman, and she was that kid. Sounded like a really rough wretch to throw in the family engine. Who knows, maybe she was nice? The Longs made up years ago and all that was suppose to be better now. Still, Yang paused as she loaded what goodies Ruby had brought to shrug her shoulders and shook her head.

"She made us dinner and she helped build your room, other than that she hasn't mentioned it. Rubes, don't worry about it. Big sister Yang won't let anyone pick on you." The words were comforting and maybe it was just having Yang there to pat her on the back and be that big beautiful ball of burning glory that was she was. The best big sister ever, bar none. "Now get on, dinner's waiting for us," she added sliding her way on the yellow motorcycle, revving it once or twice for show. She was always a bit of a show off.

"When did you get this?" Ruby asked straddling herself in behind Yang. She gave Ruby a devilish smile right back. Mouthing 'hold on' and tossing Ruby a helmet was the only warning she would give before starting up quick, firing them both out of there. Ruby would have let out a scream, but she couldn't even gather sense enough for that. She just clung to Yang, scared the wind would knock her right off the bike. Ruby had never ridden anything that had a motor and less than four wheels before. It was horrifying, then scary, followed by exhilarating. Eyes finally lifting from Yang's hair Ruby looked over her right shoulder, crossing our of the city into the hills just south she saw the Atlantic again, so much clearer now on bike than the train. The sunset over a western hill gave a red glow on the water she could just make out in the distance and covered the eastern Castle in black. This was so cool.

"Oh, yeah I didn't tell you! Dad came back from Hong Kong, made a big deal between his brother's company and the local one here in the Vale. Promised to get me a bike if I went to college and now we're going together!" Yang seemed thrilled, she loved motorcycles and fast cars, pretty much anything that was vaguely dangerous and adventurous. Not to say she did anything really stupid, Yang was the safest adventurer she had ever known. Well, maybe not going down the road seventy miles per hour. Ruby couldn't read the gauge being in kilometers, but it felt like seventy at least. "He's paying for your tuition with that money too, so you don't have to get a job or anything. We got you set up." Yang was nearly singing with how happy she was, which was good to hear. Ruby didn't really have any idea if she would be good news or a problem coming here. The whole event was an emotional storm, one she had yet to adjust enough to make sure the red head wasn't a sudden burden.

"So, what does dad… you know, do?" Ruby had to almost shout to be heard over the roaring wind along the main stretch of road into the hills. In all this time she didn't really know what dad did any more. She knew he was from Hong Kong, that he worked in development in north Africa for a Spanish company years back. It was where he met mom who was a security contractor. Other than that, dad was a complete mystery to her. Maybe it was more Ruby's fault for not reaching out and asking. In fact, the funeral was the first time she had seen him since… too long.

"Still development, though he mostly stays in country. Mom put a super tight leash on him since, well you!" Yang let out a roaring laugh, the whole thing a lot funnier to her than anyone else. It made Ruby feel a little awkward, but everyone had their weirdness. This was hers, in a far away place. It was so pretty though, the city was in the distance now, suburbs and orchards replacing them. The road grew more cobble than proper pavement so Yang slowed down. Out in the hills everything was surprisingly green and really old. They passed an wooden church burned down, but loaded with pretty flowers. Past that was a town plaza with a fountain and lovely park. It eventually gave way to a river rapid partitioned off in a cobble stone riven, probably made to protect against flooding, but Ruby thought it was just really scenic, it looked cold to the touch, maybe she could swim in it during summer. After all she was going to be here for the next four years.

They slowed their pace even more crossing over the river on a small stone bridge, probably as old as the town itself. Maybe even Roman. On the other side small stone fencing was covered in grape vines for most of the houses, some of them older than anything in America, but some of them fairly new. Turning one more corner along the top of the hill was the final building, so it had to be theirs. It looked like a wooden tower more than home at first glance. Though only maybe two floors high, its place on the hill made it look way bigger. It was mostly wood, probably an older place though recently reconstructed. The same viney stone fence was around this place, though more orderly. It was more tower than mansion. The first floor wasn't all that massive, sort of calm and collected. Ruby liked that. The entire complex was painted tan where it wasn't wood, with the same red brick roofing the rest of the buildings all shared. It was a really lovely place and as Yang slowed down in front of the rocky driveway, Ruby was content in this for her home.

"Mía, llegas tarde!" a woman called out from the porch. She was thin, tall, and really beautiful. From the lines in her face it was evident she was older than Yang, but they did look so much alike. She was wearing a yellow dress, her arms crossed with a raised brow. Ruby didn't know what she was saying, but clearly she was irritated just a little. This was definitely Yang's mom, one look would tell you that. This was where Yang got her golden hair, much larger proportions, legs, violet eyes, and ever so slightly tanned skin that made her so obnoxiously pretty. It was like meeting an older Yang, something that, if translated to her personality, meant they would all get along awesomely.

"Está bien, mamá, esta es Ruby!" Yang announced, almost shocking Ruby. It had been so long since she had seen Yang speak Spanish, all hints of an accent gone years ago. Almost forgot this was where she grew up. The mother eased up, shaking her head at her daughter's comment, whatever it was. Taking a few step further she walked right up to them, Ruby getting off the bike and Yang detaching all the trunks and goodies from across the ocean.

"Hola, mi nombre es Envida Long. ¿Cómo fue tu viaje?" she asked, hopefully innocently. Ruby froze up in response, giving only a nervous chuckle in response as she pulled on her own hoodie. Why didn't Yang tell her she couldn't speak Spanish anyways? How bad was the communication here, or was this just one of Yang's pseudo pranks.

"Yo no hablo espanol," Ruby replied meekly with a chuckle. Yang just burst out laughing as she undid more baggage. Her mother made a slight click with her tongue in irritation, probably not the best way to make a positive impression. After a passing sign though, she laughed lightly into a grin with a bit of Yang in that smile and chuckle.

"Your accent is terrible. Learn it quick. My name is Envida Long. Call me Envida or Señora Long, either is okay. Come, come, food is ready." She had nothing left to say apparently, after telling her to come she walked back inside, more voices coming from within. Both hers and a male voice Ruby could recognize as her father.

"Come on, it's not like our house is that haunted, " Yang cut in tossing Ruby one of the luggage trunks carrying in the two by herself. It was noticeably the lightest one she handed off, which made Ruby smile. Well, until the rest of that sentence struck her. _'Wait, wait, that haunted?!'_

The inside was about a rustic as Ruby could have really wanted without it seeming poor or shabby. The interior was mostly woodwork, a darker color dominating it. There were some paintings hung up and other assorted strung about furnishings, but other than that it was a pretty spartan lay out, empty of the clutter usually associated with homes. Yang was right, her mom was a clean freak. Yang dumped the trunk at the door and Ruby followed suit, not knowing exactly where her 'room', assuming she was lucky enough to have her own room, was. Sounds came from one of the side rooms, just under the wooden arch. Yang quickly pulled her by the hand into the room, a dining room set for a feast. The table was lined with plates and cups, a center piece contained a fresh ham and chicken. Fairly American, but that was maybe the point. Their dad stood looking over the preparations seeming nervous and unsure. That all melted away as soon as he turned to find Ruby.

"Ruby, sweetheart! I'm sorry I couldn't pick you up, I just got off work and thought you'd beat me here." He ran over to her side scooping up Ruby in one big hug. Her dad wasn't a huge man, in fact he was pretty small both in size and lankiness. An attractive man of notable Chinese descent, dad is where Ruby got the black to her natural hair color, he having short fading hair as black as ravens and a stubble that never quite could become a beard. This was what Ruby liked about her dad so much, no matter how little their time was together he always seemed thrilled to see her, much more loving than he claimed he was raised to be. Mom always claimed to be responsible for that, but Ruby thought it was he just had a good heart.

"It's alright, I haven't seen Yang in forever. It was nice to see her. Thanks for, uhh," Ruby didn't really know how to say it. Saving her from being destitute high school grad with like absolutely no future? For showing up out of no where saying her college was totally paid for and a totally super expensive private school too? After her mom died, Ruby didn't know what to do at all, much less what to do about life plans. Now it was more about what do with all her opportunities than whether she could find one at all. "For letting me be here."

"Stop that, Ruby. I'm your father. I have a lot of responsibility that comes with that. Ones your mom can't cover for me any more. You have a right to be here." He spoke with assurance and charm. He was such a softy. Mom use to say if he could he would spoil all of his children to death before he could stand to be stern. In times like this Ruby was super grateful for it.

"You all talk too much. Eat," Yang's mom started completely ignoring the moment and taking her spot right next to the wine bottle, popping open the evening's drink and pouring herself out some to enjoy. Dad sighed at this, clearly a little irritated by that. Ruby didn't really mind, the food looked awesome and she was too busy figuring out how not to offend the train attendants to get a lunch today.

"Mamá perfecta!" Yang laughed as she sat down next to an open seat. One she was quick to pat down giving Ruby a look that said, 'shut up and eat dinner.' Something Ruby was completely chill with. Sitting next to Yang, Ruby found herself in a perfect position to assault all the assorted meats and vegetables lines up on the table for her pickings. The wine was out of reach, but who cared. She was a milk drinker, anyways. A family meal was something Ruby had not been afforded in forever. Something she was so glad to have now.

* * *

"Alright, so tomorrow is not my first day?" Ruby asked going over her day plan. The evening meal had gone pretty well, all things considered. The food was astounding. Apparently, while Miss Long cooked Yang and dad worked their hardest, actually constructing dinner. It was then that Ruby learned Yang was in the school's culinary program, 'because she likes food.' About as good a reason as any. Miss Long had made it perfectly clear American dinner was not every night and Ruby would have to get used to Galician meals quick, whatever that actually entailed Ruby missed completely. Eventually Yang breached the subject of school, when it started and apparently how Ruby's day tomorrow was already spoken for despite being a Sunday.

"Yes. Monday is your first day, but tomorrow is special Orientation for abroad students. You are technically abroad so you'll be put in classes designed to acclimate you," dad explained, finishing up his plate of ham. He had enrolled Ruby pretty much without a single finger being lifted by anyone else. He did it mostly to keep one more thing from dropping on Ruby's shoulders, though being put in a special program felt a little like cheating.

"Basically, you'll have like near all English speaking classes for the most part, take a class in Spanish and be a part of the abroad dorm and advising group. Really cool program. I know a girl in it from Italy, she's super cool. I'm actually helping with it this year, so you're not totally alone!" Yang spoke a near mile of text per minute. She was way more confident in this program than Ruby was, but Yang was a walking ball of confidence and assurance. Hell, if she was going to be there how bad could it be. "We're going to be going to school together! I'm so excited!" So excited she was literally bouncing in her seat at the idea.

Looking at an especially difficult piece of ham that would not stop staring Ruby down, she felt exhaustion hit her as hunger faded. Jet lag was already hitting her and Ruby didn't known how much longer she had before her muscles just stopped and refused to obey her. All she was sure is that time was sooner than later.

"Umm, I hate to be rude, but I'm really tired, could I be excused to sleep….and, uh, told where that will be happening?" Ruby asked with a nervous chuckle. She wasn't really comfortable with making demands on anyone yet. Dad nodded in agreement, and Miss long waved 'fine' with at least a warm enough smile, warm enough Ruby still couldn't tell if Yang's mom hated her.

"Let me show you to your room! We totally decked it out!" Yang didn't bother asking permission, she hardly did for anything so this was in no way a surprise. Pulling Ruby to her feet the red head never got a chance to finish her meal before being dragged off. Passed to foyer into the other side of the building. Yang brought her to the stairway, one rising up into the top tower and another below that reaching to the basement.

"I live upstairs, it's actually a pretty sweet deal if I wanna bring people over. You get the basement, but I swear it's cool. It's like it's own apartment," Yang explained, opening the door under the stairs to the basement steps. Ruby was perfectly content with a basement to herself. She was not really expecting her own bedroom to begin with. This house wasn't really reconstructed with a second child in mind after all, a converted room was more than enough. This became even more true when she actually saw what was below.

"We modeled it after your room back home." They sure did, except it was even bigger, had it's own bathroom and living room accessories. The basement was the size of the upstairs dining room and foyer all together. Left was a closet. No door, but massive in space. Right was the bathroom all decked out in red just like the one she shared with mom. The living room set was a red two person couch aimed at a TV with no actual cable hooked up. _'Someone remembers playing fighting games.' _The back was complete with an old writer's desk with nice red accents, a punching bag oddly enough, and a hanging bed, like a mattress met a hammock. Clearly dangerous and Yang's idea. Still, Ruby liked it.

The back had a locked door to the outside, the basement of the building having come out on the other side of the hill. A window stretched across the back aside from the backdoor with a diagonally cut red curtains, absolutely based on her's back in the old apartment. The outside view was amazing too, a clear shot to the river that ran by the house. It was just open green expanse. This was awesome. "This use to be my work out room, managed to fit the weights back upstairs, though we had to keep the punching bag down here, so totally going to have to deal with a lot of me being around. Hope you don't like sitting around your room naked or something."

"This is awesome!" Ruby shouted throwing herself on the new couch. She couldn't have dreamed of having so much space and stuff. A writing desk, too. Yang had to have just thought of everything. Ruby really did owe them all so much. Somehow she was going to pay them back one day. Somehow.

"Mom was flipping a shit over the renovations, but dad and I wanted you to be happy here. Ruby, I'm really dumb, but I know what happened with your mom… I loved Summer, she was like a second mom to me. I want to say I'm not great at it, but I'm here for you, sis." Yang didn't need to be good at it, she was already the best sister ever. Ruby didn't know what to say so she just hugged her.

"Yang, thank you. I'ma go to bed, but I'm really happy I'm here with you. We're going to have an awesome couple of years," Ruby replied feeling a bit choked up at the moment. She wasn't ready to talk about Summer, but knowing she could meant a lot.

Yang just nodded, breaking their embrace and taking some steps towards the stairs. "Goodnight Rubes, I'll be going to Orientation with you tomorrow. It'll be great."

"Yeah, it will. See you tomorrow." Yeah, this wasn't going to be about lose. This was a new adventure and tomorrow would be the start.

****** Wow so here it is big new project. Read a lot of highschool A.U. I like, but I didn't want to do the same thing everyone else did, I wanted to put it in college, just one life step above, and put it in a place other than America. I chose the one I new best, Galicia Spain, a place I lived for a Summer. The town and village are based on a mixture of Vale, Alicante (east spain), and a village my family comes from in Galicia. The house is also based on the house my Uncle still lives in. This I thought might give a bit more spice to the setting, though it'll always remain an English fan fic, deals with mostly an American (I wanted to stick to what I know, which is being an American for better or worse).**

**Next Chapter will introduce our many beloved characters such as Weiss, Blake, Jaune, and Penny, as well as the college itself. I will be having a bit of a culturally diverse cast, so I wanted to reach out ahead and ask and British and Australians out there in terms of language what phrases are real and what isn't that's pop culture bull. Rather people be true to the culture. PM if you could!**

**Release schedule for this is more varied, but I hope to do plenty! Also, thank LazyKatze for being a source of ideas and editor on this. Her edits are awesome as is her story Layers of Ice! Also I need good art for this, so if anyone of you know of some matching cover art tell me, buh-bye!**


	2. Chapter 2: Welcome to Beacon

**Chapter 2: Welcome to Beacon**

**Ruby Rose**

"Hey, hey, get up Ruby! We got to go!"

Ruby didn't respond at first, though it was her sister's voice shouting at her. The sweet dreams of forests in perpetual autumn, of snowy valleys where nothing melts, and fantastic dreams of contrasting colors and strange things in the dark were much nicer than waking. Somewhere in a flash of white and red in a blizzard of snow, so close she could almost see it, was the next big idea.

"Stop being a butt. Get up!"

The dreams fractured into a million colored pieces and with a flicker of the eyelashes Ruby was back in real world, embraced by red velvet covers in a hanging mattress. White light from outside danced along the floor of the basement. It was bright out for being so early, though Ruby preferred that. A few warm rays from the sun breathed all the life Ruby needed into her for the day. Wide-eyed, fresh, and ready to go, Ruby kicked herself up, nearly throwing herself and the bed to the floor. The rope supports were not the sturdiest things, Ruby noticed.

"I'm up. Ready, let's go!" Ruby announced to Yang, whom apparently thought it was funny and started giggling. It took a moment to realize why. Yang was all dressed in black shorts, and a nice, brown leather jacket open at the front, showing off her yellow tank top. '_Pretty showy for a cooler autumn day,'_ Ruby thought, but maybe that was why she had a sweater tied around her waist, making a nice little almost cape. _'Good look.'_ Ruby, on the other hand, was in messy, pink polka dot PJ pants and a loose black tank top, both wrinkled and a mess. "Okay, never mind. Shower first!"

The shower in mention was a small addition to the downstairs basement, not really separated from the other room by anything more imposing than a curtain. It was plenty though. Ruby hadn't even expected her own room, so having a private bath was awesome. She turned it to a nice cool, enough to make her shudder and fully awaken for the day. This was just the orientation, but the same fears and discomfort Ruby remembered from a thousand first days at school were rumbling in her chest. This was her time to make new friends, branch out with other students like her, but that was absolutely the last thing she wanted to worry about now. After eighteen years, why hadn't people gotten less scary?

Up and out of the shower, the next choice was haunting Ruby. The choice of what clothes. It was silly high school bull, but what someone wore was a good half of the first impression. It was less of a question of altering her style, Ruby didn't want to give off an impression other than herself, but she wanted to show it without seeming too strong. Not to mention Yang's mom would probably freak if Ruby just went all out with it. Instead, she settled on a combination. Give it a day or so before she broke out the black leggings and skirts. She started with ripped at the knees jeans, sort of common, but they were comfy, and had the same red and black design as always. For a shirt she settled on a similar dark black tank top emblazoned with a red rose design, one Ruby loved to get on anything she could. Over that she had the same hoodie, a comfortable red, simple and not too flashy.

"Ruby, come on! You take forever!" Yang shouted from upstairs, a bit of an annoyed groan towards her. Ruby didn't worry about it. Gathering her now useless phone, keys to a home she no longer lived in, and wallet with a loan Portland City bus ID pass, it was clear everything she kept on her was worthless now. Everything but a red leather bound notebook and a pen. All she had to bring of her own was a writing utensil. Hopefully she could actually make something if meeting people ended up a bust. _'Don't think that way, this is the start.'_

"Alright, Yang. Let's go!"

* * *

"And so things here are pretty lax! You'll love Professor Goodwitch, big reader like you!" Yang shouted over the roar of Bumblebee, the name of her motorcycle of which was always to be treated with utmost affection. Ruby had gathered that it was her prize possession. Flying down the mountain road into the coastal city of Vale, Ruby completely understood why. The ride was beautiful and more than a little exciting. It was slightly frightening on the more bumpy cobbled roads, but driving in like this, the wind and the glimmer of the sea just a few miles out, was easily a good enough reason. Ruby didn't think she would get herself one, but drives like this out to school could easily grow to be a welcome thing. Hell of a way to wake up too.

"Goodwitch?!" Ruby asked interested, trying as well to be louder than Bumblebee. She had never heard of anyone named Goodwitch, much less a Spanish woman. Then again, not many people in Spain probably had the name Long. Heck, even in America the name Rose earned Ruby a few looks of confusion and some small bouts of name calling.

"Yeah, she and Professor Ozpin, they're from Oxford. Restarted the university here! I mean, it wasn't always called Beacon! She's a language professor, head of your program! Had her for English, loved her even if she's a bit of a hard-ass!" So this Professor Goodwitch was the boss. At least that promised the program head could at least understand Ruby. That was one major concern out the window.

'_Okay, Ruby, keep your head cool. You got this,'_ she kept telling herself the same thing all morning.

The mountain view melted after a while, reforming into streets of tan buildings with red roofs and streets made of proper pavement that were populated by tons of different people, the amount walking outnumbering the vehicles on the road tenfold. This lead to Yang making more erratic, and probably totally illegal, turns. Still Ruby didn't think it was smart to start asking her to cool it while they were still zooming through town square. It wasn't long after that just above the city streets the sun bleached walls of the local castle came to view, the tallest an empty keep with no one in it besides maybe whoever hung the Spanish flag at the top. Before the end of the next four years here Ruby was getting in there and see what was inside.

Riding closer and closer to the castle, one of the lesser keeps came into view, this one freshly painted a dark grey, the top of it a point into the sky, housing what looked like a lighthouse. It was Beacon, the University retrofitted from what had to be an expansive mansion and keep. From that main tower more buildings shot out with ornate grey roofing like the walls of a Castle, but instead of stone it was more buildings lined with windows. Perhaps dorms or classrooms. Each jutting out extension ended in a much smaller thick towers full of even more room and if that wasn't luxurious enough flying buttresses connected many of these massive halls. One of the towers was fast approaching and Ruby could only guess this was their stop.

Yang drove them right through the entrance turning onto red plaza blocks which Ruby wasn't totally convinced she was allowed to do, but no one stopped them. Eventually this plaza ended in a tiny garden parking lot with a small fountain, a bench and a rather pretty woman in a black sleeveless vest over a nice crisp button down shirt. Despite the colder weather she wore white shorts, but long black thick stockings with cute white emblems to compensate. Other than that, a black scarf around her neck and long fingerless, but pretty stylish, gloves she didn't seem all that concerned with the cold. There alone she read a book with an Italian title Ruby couldn't quite make out. The noise of Bumblebee's engine didn't seem to rattle her, but once it stopped her sharp amber eyes looked up to them.

"You're going to get in trouble parking in the teachers lot again," She said calmly putting closing her book and silently standing. Ruby was struck by how graceful she was in her motions, kind of like a cat. She was definitely a little seductive and Ruby most certainly pegged her for Yang's aforementioned "Italian friend" and her type.

"Glynda would never, she loves me," Yang replied pulling off her helmet, it was a little surprising to see how quick Yang responded to her call, she wasn't the type to flip out over pretty much anyone, yet kicking herself off the bike Yang seemed absolutely giddy. "Oh! Blake, Blake this is my sister Ruby! Ruby this is Blake Belladonna." Yang pulled Ruby out in front of her like she was some sort of presented gift for Blake. Those amber eyes looked Ruby for a moment, the young crimson haired girl feeling that familiar "You are being judged" feel.

"Nice to meet you," She barely managed, Ruby's silver eyes darting around but never quite matching Blake's. Ruby swallowed her own discomfort, heart pounding she pulled up to Blake, hand reached out, maybe a bit more robotically than Ruby hoped but ready to shake her hand. "My name is Ruby Rose."

"Likewise. I'm Blake. Let's go you don't want to be late." Blake shook her hand a little uncomfortably. Ruby already pegged Blake not quite the touchy feely social type. "I've heard a lot about you Ruby. Sorry for your loss, but I think you'll like Beacon," she started, turning right around quickly as she headed into one of the wooden doors to this particular tower of Beacon.

"It's okay, I'm just nervous. I uhh, I'm not so good with people." Ruby figured the key to making friends was being herself and being honest. As cliché as it sounded there was truth to it. Made only logical sense that anyone you actually wanted to spend time with should be the kind of people that actually liked you, not the paranoid social mess of trying hard to fit in. One of those things Ruby started really getting as she got older. Blake seemed to respond well to this, nodding though not saying much. Yang however could be heard running up to them, nearly ramming right into both of them.

"You couldn't even speak to most if you wanted to Rubes." Yang laughed as she said it, her voice reverberating Ruby's embarrassment down the grey columned halls of Beacon. The inside was bigger than it looked like it should be, a white and grey color palette having clearly won the day during the design. It looked really Hellenistic, something Ruby thought was cool, matched how unworldly old this place had to be.

"While people are a bit overrated, don't worry about Spanish. I still struggle with it, always preferred English and I do fine," Blake replied with a tired wry smile, something Ruby appreciated. Blake was strangely antisocial, yet really comfortable to be around, really easy for Ruby to understand why Yang and her hit it off.

"Don't really get why, Italian is like the same thing," Yang cut in with a whistling tone to her voice. She threw her arms around both of them, a ball of blonde hair and wide smiles between Ruby and Blake now.

"Depends on where you're from, Venetian is similar, but Roman is totally different," Blake answered gracefully ducking under Yang's arm and up the, had to be fake, marble staircase. Both Blake and Yang smiled at this, the familiar competitive look in Yang's eye ablaze. For whatever reason, Blake dodge under Yang was considered this a perfect invitation to a challenge of some sort. Ruby mused at asking if there was a bit of a romantic air between them.

"And you're Venetian, still don't get it." Yang said running up to Blake on the stairs, but right before she reached the quick Blake ducked out into the hall and right in front of the lone door in the alcove.

"And here we are," Blake decreed, kicking open the entrance with her heels. "Welcome to Beacon." The bang earned the eyes of everyone inside, highlighting Ruby in a bed of embarrassed read. Inside there were several tables and couches of different color sets facing the many whiteboards and TVs that lined the halls. It looked like a modernist living room fused with a classroom. There was a complete kitchen in right corner along the wall opposite the main TV. Doors on either side of the main room likely the foreign students dorm and the left was a cordoned off office marked Professora Goodwitch in one corner and a white board with the phrase '¡Bienvenido!' written in black. Near this board was a woman with platinum blonde hair and the greenest eyes Ruby had ever seen. Dressed in business attire fitting of a professor this was almost absolutely Professor Glynda Goodwitch. She looked stern at all of them, not impressed by Blake's showy entrance.

"Sorry Glynda. I was just showing Ruby Rose around." Blake seemed earnestly apologetic, giving a slight bow to her professor. Goodwitch didn't seem pleased at all though and gave Blake a questioning look behind the rim of her glasses.

"Miss Belladonna, sit down and don't think you can call me Glynda just because you're the most veteran here in the program." Blake took a deep breath, but nodded at this taking a seat on one of the many multi colored couches. "Ruby Rose? My name is Glynda Goodwitch, we were about to choose the primary language for the program this year. Seat wherever you like." That froze Ruby solid for a moment, she never liked being last to enter a classroom and take on the new responsibility of choosing who to sit by. She could pick the safe option, choosing to cut between Yang and Blake whom claimed a couch of their own. There was a group of two boys whom seemed nice enough, though that seemed a bit weird. Closer to the front alone at separate tables were two girls. One a pretty red head with a red bow in her hair with a green and tan dressed that matched her emerald eyes. The other girl was a strange sight if ever ruby saw one. Dressed in a blue bolero over a white dress was a girl with real life silver hair. Ruby had heard about that sort of stuff happening, people who had grey hair way sooner than when hair began to grow old and unhealthy, but she had never seen young woman with rich silver for hair. Sadly the silver girl was not warm when she caught Ruby's glace only registering her for a moment before turning away. The redhead was different though; she smiled and nodded Ruby over. Looked like Ruby's choice was made for her.

"Hi I'm Penny, let's be friends!" The ginger girl spoke with a fairly heavy accent that sounded of a weird Scottish English hybrid, though Ruby was in no way an expert on British accents. She seemed nice though and had a really sweet smile. They were both at least partial redheads, though Ruby was a darker breed, still a bit of fate that they would be buddies.

"Hi, I'm Ruby Rose..uhh… sure sounds great." Ruby felt her voice nearly crack, why did people seem to frighten her? Ruby wished she would just get better at this eventually. Though everyone seemed fairly hushed Goodwitch said nothing, instead began writing on the biggest whiteboard some sort of language table. Somewhere through the halls a pounding sound could be heard, the sound of rushing footsteps and dragged goods. Shockingly enough Ruby might not have been the last one to actually make it. This pounding grew louder, into a running rush, enough to stop Goodwitch in her writing and turn every head to the door. All that pounding came to a booming climax when a woman with the force of a battering ram smashed through the front door.

"Is Lie Ren here?!" The girl seemed out of breath, small beads of sweat from the edges of her short cut fire red hair. She was dressed in a mix white and black vest ending in a pink skirt. She had aura of power to her, or maybe that was just being scared witless by her sudden and rather loud arrival. On her were several suitcases, probably one of the students though she seemed more interested in whoever Ren was than the foreign program. Goodwitch looked furious, but lacked the words to reply, actually everyone one seemed to, except of one of the two boys in the back whom seemed completely unphased by any of it.

"Nora?" he asked, this boy with black hair and violet eyes, he seemed rather plan, if attractivel dressed in a green long sleeve shirt and fairly average white pants. The only thing that seemed super striking on him was the single streak of violet dye in his hair to match his eyes. Ruby had to assume he was Lie Ren and the other girl was Nora, for the moment he said her name she lit up a flame of excitement.

"Ren, oh my god!" Nora ignored whatever indigent stares she got from Goodwitch and half the class, the only thing that seemed to exist to her was this Ren kid. It was like watching a weird romance movie with absolutely no context, which served to only make it more ridiculous when Nora drop all her goods to go for a full force tackle into Ren whose kind of scrawny form was truly ill prepared for this. Crashing into him caused even more noise Goodwitch seemed fit to pop a fuse. "Ren I didn't think you'd be so cute! Oh my god I can't believe I finally get to meet you!"

"You must be Nora," Goodwitch started fairly politely, though her rage was really evident. "Now please sit down and behave yourself, your supposed to be an adult!"

"Undskyld, I'm sorry Professor! I just haven't had a chance to see him ever before. We we've been sending each other emails since we were like eight!" Nora bowed repeatedly, a panicked apologetic mess, she seemed a bit more aware of herself now and Ruby decided she liked her. Anyone that weird was pretty earnest and it was kind of cute to watch.

"Enough. Sit down and act your age." Goodwitch ended it there. After taking a moment she backed away from the whiteboard revealing a table of sorts. It listed the names of a bunch of languages and a spot for totals. First was Spanish. "Bienvenidos. ¿Quién de ustedes habla Español?" Ruby didn't even know what that meant, but hands all around her were raised. One of the girls in the back Ruby had not recognized with Brown hair did so, Blake and Yang did, next to Ruby Penny just shrugged, the silver girl up front raised her hand as well.

"Français?" she asked next writing four down next to Spanish on the board. Ruby realized what it was then, a counter for who spoke the language. This was going to be a long embarrassing ride for Ruby she realized being incredibly language deficient. This was at least less popular, only the blonde boy next to Ren raised his arm, Blake and the silver girl.

"Deutsch?" She asked writing a measly three down by French. This was an even more restricted category, the only ones who raised their hands were Nora and the silver woman again. Ruby felt a little smart actually knowing that meant German not Dutch, though again she had to keep her hand down. Knowing what it was and speaking it was a totally different thing.

"Italiano?" This was just Blake, which was just impressive to see how many Blake knew, she was a smart girl. Though to top her the silver haired girl raised her thin pale arms again after a moment. _'holy cow, how many languages do you know?' _It was just one of those things that made Ruby want to rethink her life choices. Perhaps she could have been as smart as this girl coming in.

"Professor can we just skip to the part where English ends up winning?" Yang asked though it made both Blake and Goodwitch groan in frustration. Ruby got the idea that this was a common problem. After a sigh Goodwitch went to the very bottom where English sat alone.

"English?" Everyone raised their hand, not mostly everyone, everyone. All ten students and of course silver girl whom was the first to raise her hand. A silver haired odd beauty and a language savant. Some people just got blessed twice Ruby figured. It was really these moments where Ruby felt a little guilt that the entire world seemed to teach English as the second language and she couldn't even bother to pay attention to the two years of Spanish she had in high school.

"Alright English it is. My name is Doctor Glynda Goodwitch. My doctorates are in language studies and origin. I speak the native language of every student on the program roaster so if you have any problems here go ahead and see me, we'll work it out. You are all, barring two, new students to Beacon and part of fresh effort to expand our student body to foreign students in and out of the E.U. Here in this program you will all share a private Spanish class with me at eight every morning and your programs will be catered to give you the most foreign friendly classes as well as setting your classes with other foreign language students. If you have any questions see me after, but now that everyone has arrived I feel it's time to introduce yourselves. I know most of you have already gotten to know your dorm mates, but to those not in our dorms or just arriving today let's start." Glynda pushed her glasses up as she finished her speech. Ruby decided she liked her too, seemed nice if a little scary.

"Anyone want to go first?" Glynda offered when no one took up the role immediately. Out in the back as soon as the invitation was given Nora in the back jumped up waving her hand up excitedly. Goodwitch took a deep breath clearly not the biggest fan of bubbly people.

"I'll go Professor!" she offered again hopping up and down excitedly when Goodwitch said nothing. She nodded yes and Nora beamed, jumping over one of the couches running up to the front of the class. She turned around with a twirl her skirt doing a nice spin with it. "I'm Nora Valkyrie and I'm from Copenhagen Denmark!. I'm a first year but I haven't picked a program yet. Look forward to hanging out with everyone." She had a big smile on her face and spoke faster than pretty much anyone Ruby knew, and that was coming from a girl who when she was comfortable spoke at a bullets pace. Ruby doubled her faith that she would get along with Nora.

"I'm going to give it a go, wish me luck matie," Penny whispered softly over to Ruby who nodded with a smile. Penny was a little weird, but Ruby liked how jolly she was. Standing to take Nora's place Penny got a random hug from Nora who said something about team ginger but Ruby couldn't quite make it out, was cute though. Goodwitch cleared her throat behind them making Penny jump and rush back to center stage. "Howdy friends, I'm Penny! I'm in the Mechanical Engineering program, a first year. I was raised in a small town near Leeds, England, but wanted to go on an adventure instead of a university so I came here for both."

"Leeds? Have you ever been to York?" the Blonde guy asked in the back a little meekly, he looked a little embarrassed realizing he had interrupted Penny, though she just smiled and nodded yes. Goodwitch though looked back with a raised eye at him with just a bit of a wry smile.

"I believe you have just nominated yourself," Goodwitch declared. The boy stood up taking his place at the front, he seemed nervous, which Ruby totally got. He was dressed pretty simply, a nice button down white shirt and blue jeans and just a pair of sneakers. He didn't seem to find his words at first, instead her just shifted feet and scratched his mess of blonde hair. "Uhh I'm Jaune Arc, from Orleans France. I'm in the History Program and a second year. I like old stuff, that's about it for me," he gave a shrug and a smile as he finished. Ruby thought she'd get along well with Jaune too.

When Penny sat down by Ruby and Jaune started going away Ruby felt a need to be brave. This was the opportunity to really show herself and reach out into the group. Heart pounding, almost quaking as she sat Ruby took a moment to collect herself before standing. This moment just happened to take long enough for the other red head to pass her completely and start.

"Hello, my name is Pyrrha Nikos, I'm from a small village in Laconia, Greece." She was a really pretty girl and easily taller than everyone in the room, very muscular too. She had lovely dark auburn hair, about Ruby's natural color when she didn't dye it bit blacker, but tied back it looked a little cool, enough so for Ruby to consider maybe getting a pony tail if she ever grew it out. Pyrrha wore a sleeveless light brown top and red miniskirt that perfectly matched her hair. She had this pleasant soothing smile to her and spoke very mild mannered. "I took a year in England at our sister University Sanctum, but for my second I decided to transfer here. I'm a Physical Fitness major and hope to involved in our female kick boxing club." At that Yang nearly exploded in her seat raising her hand and giving a big whistle. She was the president of the female kickboxing club

"Yang, you're an aid, but I'm sure you should introduce yourself. More properly." Goodwitch started, but with all of Ruby's idiot courage she built up, she was not going to be passed by so quickly. Well at least not again.

"Professor GoodWitch may I please go next!" Ruby could feel herself sweating as she said it. That was not good, who sweated forever just announcing yourself to a dorm room. Well maybe what was freaking her out was interrupting Goodwitch, a really dumb idea on her part. The professor looked a little mad, but nodded letting her go first. Ruby a mess of shot nerves and piles of other locked away messed up emotion stood in front of their dorm group a measly ten people.

"Um, my name is Ruby Rose. I'm really happy to meet you guys. I'm from Portland Oregon, which is a place in America. So my mom passed away recently so I moved in with my dad to go hear." Realizing perhaps popping the dead mom thing this early might have been a bit uncalled for Ruby put on her best smile and tried again. "But I'm excited to start here. I'm a first year so I haven't decided a major, err I mean a program. I'm thinking of doing creative writing, but I'm not sure. Most of us are looking for a bit of an adventure so let's have it together!" Penny smiled at Ruby from the back, but in front the silver girl rolled her eyes as soon as Ruby admitted her undecided status.

"Well Miss Schnee, I see we have another volunteer." Apparently Goodwitch had caught that roll of the eyes and didn't approve. Silver hair nodded politely standing and taking Ruby's place. She had this centered perfect stance, back straight and chin up, kind of made Ruby look like a bit of a slouch, but Ruby found it impressive. Walking up was the first time Ruby had a good look at her face, noticed how pale it was and more oddly how a thin jagged pink scar cut down her eye. Ruby couldn't lie and say she really didn't want to hear the story of how exactly that little line got on her face. It wasn't repulsive; in fact it was a little...right. She wore it with grace Ruby supposed. Her mom had a few things like that, she used to say scars look cool on people only when you stop hiding it or being tawdry about it and to her credit she was neither.

"My name is Weiss Schnee, I was raised in a private manor in west Germany near Cologne. I was in another university in austria for a different program until recently. Due to conflicts I'll be returning to a first year here in the business administration program. I'm sure you are all the best at what you and I look forward to working with you." Ruby really didn't know a lot of people with that much pure confidence her age. Some like Penny oozed comfort and ease, but confidence and authority not so much. It was something that felt almost a little intimidating along with appealing about this young woman in her bolero and heeled boots with a sideways ponytail hung up by a red ribbon to just pouring out authority.

The rest of the class came up one at a time after that. Ren ended up in the medical program and reinforced that he did in fact know Nora though it was the first time they had actually met for real. Was kind of a cute thing. Another girl came up dressed in a cute brown sweater that matched her long brown hair and a just adorable red plaid skirt. Her name was Velvet Scarlatina, an astrophysics major from Canberra, which as it turns out is the actual capital of Australia. Blake and Yang both went up, though Ruby already knew they were third years and that Yang was in culinary arts. It was good news to hear Blake was in literature studies so Ruby and her could share classes in the future. Assuming she did finally declared her major or program or whatever they called it here.

Once the announcements stopped, Goodwitch started taking each student back in the office teaching them how to register for courses. Waiting Ruby sat for a bit with Penny, discovering their mutual affections for old fairy tales and fairly large collection of Legos when they were little. Eventually though Penny was pulled away from the group. Alone Ruby stirred. She thought about talking to Blake, but she was busy conversing with Velvet whom was apparently a friend of hers. Yang was off talking Pyrrha up about the kickboxing club something Ruby was less inclined to be a part of. Nora, Ren and Jaune all laughed in a corner leaving only Weiss, sitting at a table working out of what looked like a math book._ 'Studying? Classes haven't even started?'_

"Hi, I'm Ruby nice to meet you Weiss." Ruby had to take a moment to approaching the silver haired German girl. She was a little intimidating, but Ruby believed that if she did so carefully she could recycle whatever had messed up the start of this. Weiss halted her pen, taking just second before turning to look at Ruby. She scanned Ruby quick and the feeling of being judged was present just as before.

"You're the girl whose mother died," Weiss replied her expression formal and rough for such a pale girl. Ruby must have frowned at that, well she had to, because Weiss' manner softened if just a little. "For what it's worth I am sorry for your loss." She seemed sincere if disinterested. Ruby didn't feel exactly better, but she did feel a little more hopeful.

"It's okay, I was wondering if we could be friends?" Ruby asked feeling more and more like a little kid. She had to be more direct and sound a bit more adult. "I mean I saw you roll your eyes at me, so I'm sorry for whatever I guess I did." Ruby had meant to try and sound assertive, but it came off unnaturally and devolved to a meek apology.

"Why are you undecided if you want to be in creative writing? Do you dislike actually writing?" It was a really potent question, one Weiss asked with the most brutally direct method possible. Ruby tried her best not to be discouraged, but this girl seemed a far bit more difficult than Ruby anticipated.

"I just. Once I make that choice, I'm like stuck with it. I want to; I just don't know if I can?" Ruby tried to answer honestly. A lot of things held her back on this. Fear of failure was a big one, fear that she might get there and burn herself out without anything to fall back on was another. She was use to making such small unimportant decisions, one her mom could pull her out of at any moment. Now that support both literally and figuratively was gone. Still that answer wasn't suffice enough to Weiss, and in a lot of ways not to Ruby either.

"That's either lazy or childish. If you're afraid you'll fail get over it and work harder. Work hard enough and you'll succeed. Waiting is just stupid," Weiss was jarring or more her words were. It felt painful and brought a frown to Ruby's face. Worst was it didn't make Ruby feel like Weiss was picking on her, it felt like she was a little right. Not completely and not enough to be mean, but just a little for the sting to stick. Weiss noticed this and again seemed to again grow a little soft. Maybe she was about to rephrase it and say something nicer, but the silver haired girl never got a chance.

"Weiss Schnee, I knew when you moved in I recognized you. You're Heiress to Schnee Oil and Schnee Financing aren't you?" It was Blake walking over with Velvet. She had the usual blank look on her face. Ruby had no idea what her intention, but Blake cut in front of Ruby and whatever she said made Weiss smile.

"Yes I am. I'm surprised you know that. I'm use to fairly well known in German, but here few have heard of me." Weiss spoke with a little pride holding up her chin and raising her hand to Blake. She didn't take it.

"Don't listen to her Ruby. She's was born rich off the stolen resources from developing nations. She's never had to worry about her future," Blake's turn clenched Weiss right up, her expression heated in anger though her skin kept a frosty pale. Ruby appreciated what Blake was trying to do, but that definitely turned today into exactly what she didn't want. Despite all her optimism, this was definitely something that needed fixing another day.

"Did you just? I have never!" Weiss started, but Ruby never heard her finish. Duel gingers pulled her away; Penny's plot to team up with Nora a complete success.

"One rescue free of charge," Nora laughed as she said it, the scene of Blake and Weiss arguing in the back the whole thing a bright noisy end to Orientation. "Nice to meet you Ruby, if we can get Pyrrha us redheads will rule the Dorm!" Nora pumped her fist in celebration. Ruby did giggle at that, Nora was definitely a charmer. Penny mouthed sorry to Ruby, clearly this was not the first time this sort of thing had happened with Weiss. After all they had been in the dorms before maybe someone else had tried.

"What's with Weiss? Did I do something wrong?" Ruby asked. It was one of the only failures. She had made three new friends, would make more, but there was a mistake to. One, not quite enemy but definitely not thrilled with her, classmate. Still there was tomorrow and the day after, things could be fixed. For now Ruby couldn't help but feel alright with this, standing together with gingers from across the world. Even as Ruby worried about Weiss, she smiled content.

"Don't worry about her Friend, welcome to Beacon."

***** New Choice is finally out :D So excited to start working on this project! Definitely one of the freshest things I'm doing, especially with how super serious MV and AV have gotten and to use more characters like Penny and Nora. So much so I'm considering cheating and working on chapter 3 of choice before finishing the next chapters of AV and MV, just so we start getting into the meat and potatoes of this! :D Thanks so much for the big early support everyone I hope Iiked this chapter. Also thanks for all the reviews, each helps so much and I hope you all continue to do so! :D**

**Sorry for the problematic grammar and stuff, my beta was indisposed due to a bunch of real life stuff so I had to do this blind. If you notice any mistakes please PM them. (Leaving them in the reviews is rather embarrassing) and I hope to be better in the future. Also everyone wish Lazykatze good luck on her research paper.**


	3. Chapter 3: Nine-Thirty to Eleven

**Chapter 3: Nine-thirty to Eleven**

**Ruby Rose **

There is nothing more embarrassing than to speak a language you don't even know how to pretend to speak. It was already something Ruby never felt comfortable doing, always afraid to look like an idiot around her new friends. Now doing it in Spanish made it worse. Imagine constructing a sentence piece by piece and not ever really understanding what it was leaving the top of the tongue. That was all exacerbated by how much better most of the program was at it. She wasn't jealous, per se, she wasn't even the worst. Nora apparently didn't know a word of Spanish; she just wanted to go to the same school as Ren. As such Ruby could milk just a bit of her dark Spanish history to keep from being the worst, but that just made her feel bad for her new Danish friend.

The actual course was fairly simple. They all gathered together and went through the alphabet and basic practices of the class. Ruby found herself sitting next to Penny throughout the first class on one of the multicolored couches, trying to give Yang some space after all her hard work chauffeuring Ruby around. It was fairly interesting and laid back to have such a small class, only ten students when combined with the professor's assistant. All the little subdivisions of friends found their spot in the dorm lobby to do whatever was requested for them. Some early vocal drills closed them out in which Weiss was most adamant about being chosen. It was no shocker why, she was perfect at it. She was kind of a teacher's pet, but Ruby found it more impressive than annoying.

Some of the changes between high school and university struck her as soon as class closed. No homework was directly assigned. Apparently all the books and homework was assigned online, along with all the papers and projects due, one of the many things she was supposed to learn on her own. This offered a level of weird freedom where Ruby could finish as much of the class as she wanted as soon as she wanted, which seemed to make her less inclined to do so.

The next big change was as soon as class was over. The program students weren't a cohesive entity, instead many of them went off to do their own things. Blake apparently went off to work at some part-time job; others, like Yang, went to classes in totally different buildings; and Ren just went to nap in his dorm room, apparently more of a night person than a morning person. Ruby found herself alone in the dorm lobby until Penny would come back around eleven AM. She spread herself along the slightly curved couch of one section of the Foreign Language dorm lobby. Well, she was mostly alone. Weiss Schnee had no classes either. She instead sat alone near a whiteboard, working on what appeared to be physics problems.

For a while Ruby pondered getting up, brushing off her black band shirt and hoodie, make the short walk, and try talking to her again. She wanted to, wanted to badly after kind of having everything blow up the day before, but Ruby found herself fussing with her now near brick-of-a-phone's Gameboy emulator, trying to get some bootleg Pokémon game to work. No real reason to conserve the battery, after all, it's not like she could call anyone with it. That and thinking about distractions like her three other courses made the awkward more bearable. She had the late class in Anglophonic Lit, luckily with Blake, before that a university level Calculus with Penny and a few of the others. Her next class was physics, her preferred science of all required sciences. She would have it with Penny and Velvet apparently, though it only dawned on her that they weren't the only ones. If Weiss was doing physics work, she had a physics class, and if she had a physics class it would be the Foreign Student Program class. This awkward silence was going to last from nine thirty till eleven.

That was unless Ruby broke it. The thought imported some courage to her, for she was standing up, her recently acquired charmander left on the wayside in search of greener pastures. Weiss gave off an unapproachable aura despite seeming completely obvious to Ruby. Still, the red head pushed forward, brushing her hair a little bit as she walked towards Weiss. Honestly, she had no real explanation as to why Weiss seemed scary. She in actuality was just a pretty short and thin girl in a black dress with white flowers along the shoulders. The bow that held up her lopsided pony tail was still the same red ribbon. A pretty cute style, actually. Up close she had the finest handwriting even with dry erase markers, something that was kind of suppose to be messy. Ruby could see why, she had such dainty delicate fingers. Now dainty was a good word for her even if she scared the bejesus out of Ruby.

"Hey Weiss… whatcha working on?" Ruby knew, but just walking up all in her face asking about her kinematic equations was a bit of Yang-like strong-arm approach, something Ruby never had the charm to even attempt. Weiss stopped her work, the dry erase marker eased to a pause on the symbol for momentum. Just a look up, her blue ice eyes peering for a moment before returning to the task at hand, some question dealing with elastic collision.

"Oh, it's _you._" Weiss gave an audible sigh, clearly not intending to be interrupted during her work. It made Ruby question exactly what she thought she was doing here. "Studying physics. My next class is at twelve thirty." Ruby felt the same usual social pressure magnified, but she had to go for it. She already looked like an idiot, so there was no backing down. Nervous as hell, Ruby sat herself down at Weiss' table just opposite of her. Best spot possible, next to her was too close and a little personal space pushing and a chair away felt too on purpose. Just opposite from was a perfect balance. All was good.

"We have the same class!" Ruby announced maybe a bit too excitedly. Weiss hardly reacted, though she did pause for a moment. Whatever hope Ruby had for a response dried up rather quick as the Heiress just continued working, hands busy jotting and amending her own calculations. "So, why are you studying? We don't know what the professor will cover." Ruby just wanted to keep the conversation going no matter how weirdly frankensteinian it might end up as a consequence.

"You'll never get ahead if you wait for them to feed you information. I'm studying the basics ahead of time. It'll put me ahead." Weiss smiled with a sense of pride and self-satisfaction. She clearly took pride in being the best of a class, which Ruby kind of got. It was a little bit of a braggart's attitude, though she hardly knew Weiss enough to call her arrogant. Still, everyone needed to be proud of something, being really good at school sounded like a pretty cool one to be.

"I don't know. Isn't the point of class to learn?" Ruby questioned, not really meaning to discredit, but trade her philosophy on it. Weiss took it a little more personally, rewarding the question with a leer of sorts. Maybe questioning her wasn't the best, though she was still talking, that was a plus. Hopefully with a bit more effort Ruby could build a friendship out of something more than arguing.

"The point of class is to prove you know it. It's why we have grades." That made a certain amount of sense, though a bit more cynical than Ruby hoped. She would like to believe if everyone gave it their all, there would be no need for grades just learning without fear of consequence or reward. A little idealistic, but it sounded nice. Ruby didn't say anything back, lost in contemplation for a moment when Weiss asked the question. "Don't you and your friend hate me or something equally as stupid?" Ruby feared this might be the source of their real issue. Yesterday's shenanigans.

"I don't hate you… Blake just thought we were fighting, I think. She's really cool, I think if you two talked you'd get along," Ruby offered, wanting that sort of ending. Blake was pretty great, though Ruby had known her for just over a day. She was clever, and actually really nice beyond the initial don't-care act. In fact, trade a detached attitude with a really irritated one and the two of them were pretty interchangeable in terms of initial approachability.

"I don't think so. I know the type," Weiss countered, tossing the proposal aside. She sounded for once a little more open to Ruby, though she didn't appreciate the negative attitude about Blake. Still, Weiss seemed a lot more at ease, which put Ruby at ease. "I thought you were here to start a fight."

"No, I just want to be friends," Ruby reinforced earnestly. Weiss still seemed suspicious; her lips in a disapproving flat line, but Ruby could swear her eyes showed a bit of curiosity, at least in the idea of making friends. "Wanna study together?" Ruby offered, hoping to poke some of that initial curiosity. For whatever it counted, it seemed to work a little bit.

"There are some vector equations over there if you really must." Weiss kept up with the kind of big barrier act, but she seemed at least a little happy to have someone to work with. Probably just appreciated Ruby's initiative. Either way, Ruby proclaimed operation '_make Weiss kind of like you_' an absolute success. Well there was a bit of a hiccup.

"What's a vector?" Fair enough question. Ruby wasn't the smartest person in the world, but no one she had ever known spent a lot of time talking about vectors. In fact this had been the first time she had heard the word outside of sci-fi movies and anime pseudoscience. She figured it was sort of a made up thing, like flux capacitors and stuff. Weiss on the other hand considered it a very stupid question, her eyes raised in concern, that intricate scar highlighted on her expression of honest surprise.

"Something with magnitude and direction… how much physics do you know?" she asked, illuminating just how much Ruby was out of her league.

"I took a class in high school once." Ruby laughed at herself nervously, her silver eyes darting around trying to find something less obvious to look at than Weiss' scar.

"You're a bit of a dolt, aren't you?" Weiss asked, trying to sound tough, but Ruby just laughed. Straight up belly laughed. She didn't mean to laugh at Weiss, but something about being called a dolt was funnier than it was insulting.

"Dolt? Do people actually say that?" Ruby asked when her lungs would finally let her. She didn't mean to make fun of Weiss, but Ruby had been speaking English for a very long time, done a lot of stupid things, but never in her life was she called a dolt, especially with Weiss accent making this cute, such a foreign, prissy, and proper combination. She felt like she was talking to a lady from the eighteen hundreds Germanic states.

"Yes, people actually say that!" Weiss shouted, her cheeks turning red from what Ruby though had to be a potent concoction of embarrassment and frustration. Ruby didn't like making Weiss feel bad, but watching that helped her be more comfortable, see her as more of a person than a solid wall of intimidating ice. People were less frightening when you proved they were in fact people.

"I didn't mean it badly. It's kind of like a cool, like unique thing… I thought it was cool," Ruby backpedaled as honestly as she could while keeping honest. The last thing Ruby wanted was to make Weiss hate her even more, though saying what she did felt a little embarrassing. How was talking to girls such a pain when Ruby already was one. It should have given her, like, home field advantage or something.

"Are you real?" Weiss asked, unsure on how to respond. She seemed to like the compliment, but maybe the sting of the insult hadn't left yet. Still, she was mostly disarming, not quite as aggressive as before.

"Umm, pretty sure, yeah…" Ruby replied with a smile, confident in her existence. Somewhere during all of this Weiss had stopped working on physics and focused on Ruby. At least she had her attention.

"I mean are you trying to mess with me," Weiss clarified, not totally free of suspicion. Ruby wondered for a moment. What could make someone so suspicious for goodwill and friendliness?

"No… I just think you're kind of interesting… wanted to be friends." Ruby didn't really mind repeating it, though she wasn't sure what Weiss wanted to prove this was earnest. "I'm not a particularly tricky person," Ruby tacked on adding her best good natured smile for measure, even if that just meant trying to beam from behind her red tinted hair. Weiss took to her best friendship smile with a slight sigh and some mumbled German Ruby couldn't really make out so well. A silence followed for a moment, neither of them stirring in the moment. Eventually with enough silence for the both of them, Weiss sat closer to Ruby, pushing a sheet of paper towards her.

"Well, you're of no use if you can't even use vectors. Here, I'll show you, but you better not expect this sort of treatment every day. I won't bother with a liability." Ruby nodded in agreement, enjoying her moment of success.

It continued like that for a while. Weiss teaching Ruby bits and pieces of physics, mapping out reality into diagrams of forces, vectors, and numbers. How to manipulate everything with perfect right triangles and mix matched formulas. It felt more like the two of them were playing puzzle games than studying, and despite Weiss' critical moments and all around humorless nature, Ruby found it fun to do together. There was an added benefit of surprising Weiss, too.

Soon enough Ruby was able to catch on. She was not the smartest person, but she could learn quickly, quick enough that Ruby began catching mistakes and solving the myriad of mathematical puzzles, pictures, and problems at almost the same rate as Weiss. She had the edge, of course, a bigger expert on this stuff than Ruby was, but as soon as she started catching up it turned into a race. Instead of figuring out puzzles together, they versed each other, trying to outsmart their respected partner. Ruby didn't care much about winning, though it was fun to try. Weiss most certainly did care though, flustered and surprised to have anything like this sort of challenge out of Ruby. Definitely made studying less tedious and annoying.

Eventually this gave way to a certain amount of silliness, cracking sarcastic insults and the occasional silly pun whenever someone was about to make a conceptual mistake. Weiss hated that at first, though Ruby thought she enjoyed having someone to fight on level with. She did most certainly hate the click of a tongue Ruby would make whenever Weiss made a mistake. Eventually, feeling a hint of evil Ruby did it when Weiss started doing things right, sending the silver haired girl into a mad chase for a mistake that never even existed. Ruby felt awful after a minute, quickly confessing her trickster ways. Weiss rewarded her with a couple of markers and erasers thrown at her face as well as comments, like dunce and dolt tossed around in equal measure. All in all, Ruby just had fun like that. It was nice to hang out and do school stuff with someone for once. Put a lot of bad stuff and stress on the wayside, to be dealt with later.

By the end of it they were out of Weiss' printed out review questions, the board covered in depictions of car crashes, air drops, fired cannons, and little werewolf heads Ruby replaced her Xs with for funzies. The tally Weiss was keeping marked a Schnee victory in the end by at least five points. Ruby remembered it being much closer than that, but she lodged no complaint. Weiss could have a landslide victory if she wanted; Ruby was content to just have a new friend. After all, Weiss was pretty good, so what did it matter if it was by five points or by two she won?

"Fine, fine, Weiss, you win. You are pretty great at this after all. I mean you're like perfect at everything," Ruby remarked in half well-meaning flattery and half honesty. After all, outside of maybe being nicer, she did seem good at everything. Language savant and gifted in both math and science. Ruby bet if she asked Weiss she could name off the greats of philosophy and political treatise. The wonders of the kind of education wealth could buy, not to say of course Weiss earned her smarts without a lot of hard work and studying.

"Hardly, I'm not perfect, not yet at least. If I was perfect you wouldn't have stood a chance." Ruby meant what she said pretty innocently, but Weiss took it more to heart than she would have ever hoped. Maybe perfect was like a trigger word for her, because soon enough she was at it again, looking for more work.

"Still really good, I mean you're better at math than me. Plus, like, you're Spanish and English are really strong," Ruby argued, feeling a little guilty for setting off this perfectionist twitch in Weiss. Still appealing to her ego, Ruby saw a smile on Weiss' lips, if only for a moment. It was an impressively cute sort of smile, even if she hid it too much.

"Only due to practice. I had the last ten years to learn English and the last six months to learn Spanish once I knew I was coming here. Nothing particularly special about it, just work ethic." Work ethic she was most certainly proud of, chin held high, a reverse from the kind of low pride she had a moment ago.

"How did you manage that in six months? I spent two years doing it and I have no idea how to speak anything," Ruby asked in actual interest. Maybe she had a big secret. After all, six weeks for an entire language was astounding. Whatever the secret, Ruby wouldn't mind knowing it in the least. She had to learn soon, or Yang's mom would start getting really mad, assuming she was not already totally mad at Ruby for just being.

"There are twenty four hours in a day, think about how much time that is. Question is what are you wasting them on." Weiss had a sharpness about her when she said it, a natural lecturer, though Ruby didn't mind it much at all. She wasn't totally wrong after all, discipline like that was hard to find for sure.

Ruby was about to say something, when her stomach disagreed in heavy protest, growling like a beast from the depths, hungry for the nation's supply of sandwiches and sweets. It occurred in that shiny moment to her that she had skipped breakfast, and worse than that had no means of getting lunch, no money, nothing packed. Brilliant planning on her part. Ruby felt a little embarrassed, and Weiss just rolled her eyes without a hint of surprise, like she could sense Ruby's stomachs rude interruption of their study time together.

"Go eat; we can study when you come back. Those noises aren't very becoming," Weiss ordered, crossing her arms in indignation of the growling maw inside of Ruby. A very irritated best for sure.

"I, uhhh, don't have any money…" Well this was terribly embarrassing, showing up the poor starving girl in the dorms, not to mention the added bonus of being hungry all day on top of looking really poor. Ruby tried to laugh it off, scratching her head to try and be more casual. Weiss wasn't buying it. After giving her the same eye she had all day, she stood, turning and sending the dress a flutter while she walked back into her dorm room, the largest single room in the place.

A moment passed and Ruby feared she had been abandoned, alone in her little corner of whiteboards, funny drawings and math problems. Could a little bit of a loud hungry stomach be really worth walking out on someone? Weiss was such an intriguing and rather aggressive person, but for some reason Ruby wanted to be her friend so absurdly badly. To think skipping Monday breakfast would end up being the bane to her perfect plan to win the silver girl's best friend position. Perhaps life would have been better becoming a Pokémon master for the last three hours. At least it seemed like that if only for a moment.

Shuffling came from beyond the white dorm door that was marked _Weiss Schnee_. Ruby thought about going in there and seeing if she was in some sort of trouble, but as soon as Ruby found the courage the door opened with Weiss pulling out a boxed lunch from what appeared to be the sushi place on campus. For a moment Ruby feared Weiss meant to torture her by just slowly eating the whole thing in front of her, but the girl had two sets of fine plates, far nicer than anything that should be brought to a dorm room, and an extra pair of actual silver silverware she brought along to accompany the cups and a pot of chilled ice coffee.

"I bought it before class this morning, the food is freshest then. I have my own fridge to keep it that way," Weiss explained as she set up the table napkins, silverware, and plates, pouring out ice coffee for both of them, the rich brown looking drink seeming to be like a murky chocolate milk. Opening the case, the selection was more expensive and rich than Ruby would normally have gotten, the sushi pieces some sort of fish wrapped in multicolored rice to make some sort of imagery. Weiss put a section up for herself, splitting the rolls and sides in half between them. She even brought out fine chopsticks with fabric tops.

'_Wait, does that mean the silverware is just for show?' _Being wealthy is very, very strange.

"You can have half, exactly half. Anymore and Ruby, you will most certainly regret it." Weiss didn't have to say a damn thing, the space between their portions was a better no man's land to Ruby than any front of any war, ever. She was happy snatching up whatever portions she could onto her plate, not even making use of the different sauces of which she could not even hope to name.

"Thank you, Weiss… you're awesome," Ruby replied happy to dig in, the flavors a little foreign to her, but kind of nice. She had never really had sushi before, so new things were totally a plus. Frequent Chinese did enough to teach Ruby how to use chopsticks, though, and her mom filled in some of the fine eating etiquette. Weiss had even better manners, though, each motion almost creepily proper and stilted.

"Don't celebrate yet. It's not for free," Weiss mentioned sipping her iced tea between a rather small bite of a sushi roll. Her eating was a far pace slower than Ruby's, whom was used to competing with Yang and her mom over dinner portions.

"Oh…" Ruby could only voice, almost dead stopping where she was. She had no job, and while her dad promised to pay for everything… asking for money was not Ruby's style. Looked like she was going to have to.

"You will be paying me back." Weiss looked at Ruby for a second, watching Ruby pause looking down, silver eyes on a sushi roll she refused to eat in fear of debt. It made the silver haired girl grimace pushing the plate more towards Ruby, pushing her to eat. "When you can get a job, whenever in the future that is of course. Schnee's collect our debt, but we are not heartless."

'So not at all?' Ruby almost said, but she knew Weiss was just saving face. Her gesture was still sweet, so she enjoyed eating, taking slower bites to match her hostess' pace. The food was lovely, even if the ice tea was a bit more bitter taste than she wanted from her chocolate milk look-alike.

"So why did you move to Spain? You said something about Austria during your speech?" Ruby asked just trying to start up conversation. Weiss paused her eating, as if to think for just a moment.

"I was near graduating at a music academy there. I had to change my program to one my academy didn't offer. Choice was here or Germany. I chose here." Weiss had a fairly rigid tone as she said it, clearly a subject she didn't want to pursue further, though one certainly did. For some reason Ruby felt it had to do with family. No one had been there for her when her mom went away. Maybe Weiss needed that.

"Want to talk about it?" Ruby offered, to which Weiss just shook her head no, ending that line of questioning. Why she left Austria, why she wouldn't go back to Germany, all talk for another time. Though it did leave one less major question. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-one. Why do you ask?" Ruby felt herself go wide eyed.

"You're three years older than me?! But you're, like, me sized." Ruby nearly bit her own tongue out trying to stop herself, but the thought was out and Weiss turned red. Clearly a bit of a size complex in there, whether height or chest. It could be either. Ruby just was stupid enough to bring it up.

"Ruby, I will rip the food right back out of you for that!" Weiss stood at the table, in complete refusal to accept her height, standing right over Ruby bending over her to make it more intimidating. The heeled boots she wore certainly helped. "I'll have you know I am a perfectly ordinary size for a woman my age! In fact, plenty of people envy a petite form like mine!"

"No, no, you're gorgeous! I didn't mean to make you mad! I'm small too, we're like perfectly cute sized!" Ruby replied, waving her arms back in forth in an attempt to build a wall between them. Whatever she said seemed to work a little, though Weiss was still fuming. The better distraction was the dorm lobby door swinging open.

"Hi friend!" It was Penny, running full speed from the entrance to her bedroom, a loud thump as she shut the door. Weiss and Ruby both looked at each other with mutual shared confusion. That was until the door slammed back open and Penny was strutting in with her three drinks that looked like root beers.

"I forgot how much I hated school in the morning. Here, I have drinks for everyone!" Penny marched her way over and tossed one to Ruby and Weiss, popping open her own before taking a sip and sliding her arms around Ruby in a hug. She was most certainly the touchy-feely type, which Ruby adored. It was nice to have warm hugs sometime in the day.

"I don't think I will today, Penny. We have class in an hour," Weiss noted sliding her root beer back to Penny. She just shrugged, still hugging Ruby and letting her chin rest on her red headed companion.

"What's all this?" Penny asked, clearly talking about the problems all strung up along the board. A fairly impressive sight, Ruby thought as she toyed with the bottle, its twist off tip giving her just a little more trouble than it should have.

"We were competing over who could solve more physics problems correctly. I used the blue marker, her red. I won by 5 points," Weiss explained, proudly sipping her ice coffee once again. The damn top finally came off and the bottle's contents were free to be enjoyed. Taking a sip it was fairly cool, but murky tasting, with this weird hint of something else. Something else, but familiar.

"What is this?"

"Beer I bought at the school pub. Not the best, but it tries." Ruby felt her heart sink a little, the bit of her goodie-two-shoes attitude screaming in the back of her head. She could recognize the acidic little extra bit to the overall mix. It was the same taste she had at Christmas parties when her mom broke out the wine. It was the taste of alcohol.

"Penny, I can't drink this!" Yang would have laughed at Ruby if she had heard her say that. Weiss saved her that indignity by just ignoring it. Penny didn't, laughing heartily, sipping again on her beer labeled all in Spanish.

"You're not in America any more, sweetheart. You're eighteen, a free woman!" Penny announced when she stopped her chuckling. She was still sweet enough to give her a tighter hug and whisper, "You don't have to drink it," in Ruby's ear. Ruby took that as an allowance to put the bottle down. She didn't feel like embracing new horizons before her first day of physics. Yep, a real goodie-two-shoes. "Weiss, you only won by two points… actually, you tied. You see number five and seven? You marked them right, but matie you used the wrong friction coefficient!" Penny found that funny, Weiss most certainly did not.

"No way, that can't be right!" Weiss shouted angrily at the red headed duo. Her cheeks were red with embarrassment, and looking over, shocked at how quickly Penny worked through all the problems, she was right. The friction coefficient was off, using static instead kinetic friction. They had tied.

"You did it friend. Penny has your back," the goofy ginger whispered with her usual cheery smile. Ruby was really glad to have her as a new friend. Twice now she had come to her rescue. This time though it undid more progress than it helped. Ruby couldn't blame the sweet heart for trying.

"Uhh… Weiss," Ruby started pulling the silver heiress away from the board and onto her. Ruby decided to just go for the gold, no point in holding back now. Throw down the glove and keep this friend train rolling. _'Do it Ruby,' _she whispered to herself a little afraid of how much she was biting off with this one. "Let's do a rematch. Just like before, nine thirty to eleven. We can study together like a thing."

"I'll win next time, Ruby."

And she was absolutely sure Weiss would.

*****And here we are, Chapter 3 and we get to watch some longer interactions between characters. I hope my slightly older Ruby meshes with everybody nicely. Kind of weird starting all the way with the beginning with these two. For once I meet my due date for a release! (scratch that one day off, but for important school stuff!) I'm so happy! :D**

**I want to thank Lazykatze for the edits, I can be a real annoying bitch (Note: Tells me that the chapter is done and asks for edits, no bitchness _ -Kat) about getting edits in and she was lovely enough to work with me through the process. So everyone give her a shout out and read her fic Layers of Ice or Church storm if you're a madoka fan.**

**See you in two weeks! :D Buh-bye**


	4. Chapter 4: Foot in Her Mouth

**Chapter 4: Foot In Her Mouth**

**Yang Xiao Long**

What was the meaning of a fight? Yang felt like she could remember a hundred people saying they knew the answer and a hundred answers that were wrong. Some had told her that it was an expression of her anger, pent up rage that could only be unleashed in real combat. If that was true, why did she feel like smiling when a strike landed or want to laugh when the match got truly intense? Others had told Yang that she needed something to be proud of, that it made her feel powerful in a powerless society. She wasn't so sure of that as well. Yang couldn't remember a moment she felt powerless. She was a natural in her

prime and the best. Some said it was because the blonde must have been picked on in school, but again this was false. Yang had many friends, who often complimented her about how beautiful she was. Her confidence was unbroken and remained as such all her life. Her mother claimed she was just a violent person, but it wasn't about the violence. She didn't need blood and gore, she wanted struggle, intensity, and she almost always made friends whether she won or lost, though she rarely walked away defeated.

Blake had once suggested that it wasn't about anything at all particularly. Something about it all being sound and fury, signifying nothing. It was very close, but missed something intrinsically important: the enigmatic value. When Yang was asked this question she often would say it was just the kick, the adrenaline, the moment of which she was just a junky, but something about that was just a hollow place holder. It didn't scratch the surface and could not be replaced with a roller coaster ride or a dangerous night in the town.

The best answer Yang had ever heard, the answer of her father, was the concept of Dao. The way of things, as he liked to put it. He once said that everyone had their inner Dao, or way, which when found was their natural state, one that resulted in Wu Wei, or effortless action. The religious mumbo-jumbo was not something Yang believed in and neither was any of the meditation or Zen stuff, but the concept of Dao seemed to be true regardless of any faith. The idea of this being her natural state, the core of what was her held true. Something beyond choice was definitely in her, resulting in the effortless action of a match. Yang lived nearly every day in the thinly padded room, knocking back bags, honing her form, exercising and building up for a fight because it was her Dao, her way of which there could be no other.

Now that same Dao brought her into the sparring arena, just a floor of gymnastic mats and agreed on borders in some small shared space that was the club room. It was what made her stand pumped and alive, never quite as complete as she was when facing a new opponent. And that she did. Pyrrha Nikos, Grecian student by day, sexy Spartan warrior princess by club time. At least it felt like that, seeing her in gym shorts and a sports top that displayed an orange tint that lightened her nearly nonexistent Mediterranean tan and highlighted her red hair tied up in the back. She had well defined abs and arms, muscular as hell, yet surprisingly thin. The kind of tone Yang was jealous of. Not to say Yang didn't try to put on a show herself, dressed in matching yellow shorts with a gym top that was about two inches short of just being a sports bra. After all, Blake was watching, even if the bookworm was just reading in the corner, not as impressed by Yang's own muscled form as she used to be. It was worth a shot at least.

"You ready to go?" Yang asked, her words slightly slurred by the protective mouthguard. The golden girl stood, just a meter between them, arms raised the perfect distance between her eyes and hands, bound by the sparring gloves she wore. Weight perfectly center, left leg forward and right tilted ever so slightly, Yang's preferred heavyweight stance.

"As long as you are, Miss Long," Pyrrha replied, voice slurred in a familiar way, mouthguards a rather annoying necessity. Still, she spoke well for having a big thing of plastic in her mouth. It made Yang smile to tell she had needed one of these guards before. Pyrrha had a stance of the same Muay Thai art, but her form was of a rare lightweight variety. Left arm low, only slightly bent, which allowed her to pivot it and turn that tough forearm into a shield. Her right fist was raised up already in striking position, like a readied javelin. She turned her body slightly, letting her left side be the only striking zone, a much smaller area to aim for than Yang's if not as versatile a position.

"Let's go!" Many people liked to start out circling each other, giving themselves time to think. Yang didn't need to think, she only ever was. This was her Dao, her infallible way, and it said straightforward.

One hop was all it took to close the distance, that terrible little space between Yang and her opponent. No, just like dance there wasn't meant to be space. A fight needed contact, contact Yang was happy to give. Left jabs were quick taunts, a kind of fighting handshake that could turn into bee stings if the opponent let it, and Yang was happy to sting her apart. The little left strikes could only bite Pyrrha, shielded by the pivoting forearm, the damn shield of an arm unbreakable. Thing was, little stabs stung after a while, stung in a way that you just had to stab right back. Pyrrha was not an exception to this rule.

A hidden wince of irritation in those green eyes messaged Yang that a strike was coming, and come it did. That spear of a right arm went for thrust, the force of it Yang could almost feel, and did when she caught it in her right, the kinetic wave running all the way into the blonde's shoulder. It was a wonderful kind of force, one that pumped her heart an extra beat and made the world slow down and speed up all at once. This was being alive; this was the only work that felt effortless.

Arms a tangled mess, Yang shifted her left foot at an angle, spinning the whole of her body into one side destroying swing kick. It was an easy bet in a close hand mess like this that the opponent would forget their lower body, letting a well placed kick or swipe be turned into a perfect knock out. Pyrrha wasn't most people. Perhaps it was Yang's smile that gave it away, the stupid tell she couldn't seem to stop in a beautiful battle like this. Either way the Grecian noticed, eyes down on Yang's muscled leg whipping around to strike, the force of Yang's entire body propelling it forward. Pyrrha simply lifted her leg, the knee blocking any strike to center body, and sending the most horrific pain and livening feelings one could feel into the bone. It hurt bad, but Yang was used to it, her nerves were muted to the pain and whatever was left made her alert and alive. Perfect time to force forward.

The space between them was null, so much that with a step she could kiss her red headed friend, but kissing was a different game. One not done with fists. Yang guessed you could say she meant to kiss a confused, down-looking Pyrrha with her glove rushing towards her jaw. This girl wasn't a normal fight, she was astounding, amazing even. She just pivoted that left arm and smacked the blonde's main punch to the side like nothing. All that heft, force, and kinetic energy sent into the air somewhere lost forever. Yang's body was still moving forward, her mind still focused on attack, left hand balled up tight for rib jabs. She had made a terribly stupid mistake. She forgotten about that high raised arm of Pyrrha's, the one that in just a moment would be implanted in Yang's memory forever.

It hurt, hurt badly. The pain was searing and destroyed her senses. Yang felt her mind melt for a second in a buzz, the one a good knock to the face often earned her. The strike was meant for the jaw, but it found Yang's eye and she could totally feel tomorrow's bruises coming quickly. Pyrrha was apologizing, Yang could hear it, but not really, the game winning onslaught that should have followed didn't, instead there was the gift precious time to breath, shake it off, and get right back into position.

"Yang, are you okay?" Pyrrha had a sad look in those emerald eyes, but the blonde couldn't think of why. After all she was smiling like a fool.

"We're not done!" Yang shouted in a slurred mess as she circled her opponent for the last gambit. She had to stop soon, before the swelling started to hit, but no way was she going to go out to the newbie without being a little cool first. Mad dash in, all her chips on the table, Yang went in close. She might have expected a quick strike, but Pyrrha was playing for counters and Yang took that as an invite. Illegal in some tournaments she went for one of Muay Thai's more famous offensive moves. A slashing elbow strike to the face. It was an intimate attack that put you in such a close proximity to the opponent some thought it too brash. Well brash would have been Yang's middle name if it wasn't already Xiao.

Pyrrha wasn't any less defended and she pivoted her arm to shield her face, but the thing was an elbow strike was full bodied. Yang's entire self smashed into her and blocked Pyrrha's view of her feet. Exactly what Yang wanted. The redhead moved to spear Yang right in the jaw with her right punch, but she never got her chance. It's an easy thing fighting this close to forget the legs, even more so when you're confident.

Yang didn't need much force, just a quick kick to the shins. While more painful than damaging, it put Pyrrha on her a knee without much chance to respond. Where a series of quick and brutal strikes should have followed, they didn't. Yang was too excited, her heart pounding, face screaming, and smile wide she just pulled Pyrrha into the biggest hug ever.

"Oh, my god! You are, like, the toughest badass ever! That was awesome!" Yang's voice was so slurred she wasn't even sure her words would be anything else but a jumbled nightmare.

"Thank you… are you okay, Yang? I didn't mean to get you in the eye," Pyrrha asked as soon as she could pull out of Yang's hug. She seemed a little concerned, though there was no reason so. Yang's eye still stung, the surface area of that knockout punch was wailing so loud, but it felt great in a way. She was sort of proud of it, more so because that the newest member was such a beast. The blonde didn't even comprehend enough to answer, the excitement in her blood too hot, too concentrated. All she could think of doing was sharing this new discovered compatriot with her most important person, Blake.

"Blake, did you see that?! Did you see that!?" Yang actually spoke clearly, remembering to remove the mouth guard. She had pulled Pyrrha along, firmly holding her hand. The silly Grecian girl seemed so awkward now. Presenting her prize fighter, Blake seemed unimpressed, hands on her hips, those amber eyes annoyed.

"It was her knocking the shit out of you is what I saw. Jesus, Yang, you need to be more careful. Velvet, please get us an ice pack." Blake was definitely Yang's most important person. A friendship that danced a thousand lines, trampled over a few more boarders than they should have, and never quite found its comfortable standard. Some days it felt like Yang could love her forever, sometimes it felt like she was completely alien to the blonde, something beyond her comprehension that words and concepts just wouldn't measure. Sometimes it just felt distant, like Blake was just an afterimage of something caught in twilight. Over a year had passed since Yang Long met Blake Belladonna, and in that time the only thing Yang had learned for sure is she was something important to her. What it was or what it meant Yang didn't fathom or factor into this equation. Blake was here now, dressed in her stylish Italian vest and that little black bow, her slender fingers touching the now swollen soon-to-be black eye. It stung, it burned even, but the attention was gratifying.

"Here you go, Blake. That was a nasty shot." Velvet came back with an ice pack and bandages, sweet girl as she was. Yang let Blake apply the pack and wrap a holding bandage to it to keep the small patch of chilled gel in place. It felt like a jolt at first, but quickly the coolness turned into the exact boon Yang needed for this beating. It drained the adrenaline from Yang. The exertion finally catching up with her. Face chilled and all minor wounds settled, she let herself drop with a laugh, collapsed on the soft padded floor, and sprawled out with a smile. This was the life.

"I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to." Pyrrha was a little skittish, standing up above her, stepping back just a bit to avoid showing the goods under her skirt to the now pleasantly passive floor bound Yang. Smart girl, showed again how aware she was of everything around her and brought a laugh to her collapsed compatriot. Yang was the inverse of Pyrrha, the world got smaller in the fight, simpler. Everything around her outside of the opponent was background noise. It was only clear now with the match over exactly where Yang even was. The fuzz went away and the clear expanse of the room replaced it. The punching bags to the left shared with the regular boxing club, the training sets to the right, a mess of machines weights that were 'borrowed' from the school's full gym. She could sense the few others present. I couple of girls who always trained together in the other corner. She noticed now who was not present, the Malachite twins, off working the bar or with their boyfriends, skipping practice probably.

There was of course Blake here. She was second captain but never fought, instead she was just there as a friend, and because whether she would admit it or not, the Italian minx thought watching beautiful woman fight was sexy and Yang had seen the reading material to prove it. Velvet was there as a transfer from mid last year, and she joined because she had such a huge crush on Blake, though everyone either didn't notice or ignored for her sake. Yang liked Velvet though, she was a sweetie. Almost made her wish Blake would notice Velvet's affections. Almost. The little aussie was an amazing book keeper for the club too, which Yang was in dire need of.

"You got me good. You have one of the best senses of alertness I've seen. That left arm, Pyrrha, I just couldn't get passed it!" Yang announced punching a fist into the air to mark her excitement. Next order of business would be to learn how to do that, and how to beat it. Yang loved learning the different styles and skills, loved mastering her combat arts. Totally loved kicking butt, too.

"Actually you got me in the end. That elbow caught me off guard; I'll need to work on that for next time." Pyrrha smiled, the brightness in her eyes back as the shiny emeralds they should be. The special phrase of next time meant something super important, the largest success of this meeting by far. The big fish might have just been caught and Yang was thrilled.

"So you are joining?!" Yang asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow just wanting to sink her teeth in a new member. Frankly, a girl's kickboxing club should have been way easier to start, the girl's Futbol was huge here and Yang thought a club about punching things should be easy to sell. So far the roster floated between ten and seven depending on semester, two of which didn't even fight. She would have pressured Ruby into joining, but Yang thought watching her get creamed in the face over and over again might be too much for a good sister to bear. Blake didn't share the thirsty look, instead she gave Yang a bit of a grimace.

"Give the girl some space, Yang. Sorry Pyrrha, she is… excitable… when it comes to new girls. We'd welcome a new member, but don't feel pressured," Blake offered with probably more affable terms, but spoiling all of Yang's fun. The blonde rewarded Blake's efforts with an extended tongue in complaint. Blake tried to hide her laugh and looked back with this hidden expression meant to tell her just 'really?'. Non-verbal communication was cool and a strong measure of their familiarity.

"I can see that," Pyrrha started giving Yang a sweet, but a bit pained smile. 'Okay maybe I came on a little strong, but come on!' the blonde thought, opting maybe for begging, however, the Grecian's next comment made her near speechlessly happy. "But I'd be happy to join."

"Hell yes! I consider this a win! I told you, Blake. Ha!" _Near_ speechless, nothing ever really made Yang speechless. Yang kick-laughed up a frenzy and while Blake did roll her eyes, she seemed to give a subtle smile. A gracious loser considering the little bet they made in class about how quick Yang could turn her to the noble combatant's path. Teach her to doubt the masterful persuasive techniques of Yang Xiao Long.

"So what is the schedule here? Any requirements for membership to your club, Captain Long?" Pyrrha asked. The title of 'Captain Long' felt pretty cool to hear, but Blake laughing outright at the mention of it put a bullet in any hopes of turning that into a real thing.

"We meet here whenever we can around at thirteen o'clock. If you can't make it, you can't make it; if you're late, you're late. We tend to be fairly relaxed. Our leader here seems to hate everything that comes with scheduling, so if you need the club room at another time, just ask," Blake explained opening up the club books for whatever forms were needed. Administrative tasks were always floated down to Blake and Velvet, mostly because they were boring and clubs were supposed to be fun. Honestly, the main reason Yang was the club captain was because Blake wanted nothing to do with the actual fighting. She was more like a really sexy coach that all the boys dreamed they had instead of the fat, balding guys they got. Kind of like that. "Also call her Yang, you've already swollen her head enough as is."

"You're no fun!" Yang replied from the floor with no defense, but a whine. Didn't deter the minx in the least.

"I've heard you say quite the contrary if I'm remembering a few drunken episodes correctly. Now get up lazy," Blake remarked, seeming satisfied with a victory and content she had Yang by the collar. The raven haired girl reached her arm out for her disheveled captain, offering her a way out. '_Clever, clever cat'_, Yang thought, taking the outstretched arm.

"Alright, I'm up. All in all, I'm glad you joined us Pyrrha, but I mean with this pack on my face some might wonder if it was maybe a pyrrhic victory, eh?" No one laughed.

"Oh, come on. It was funny!"

* * *

"Once you start drawing out the word problems and turning them into triangles you won't have any more problems," Velvet lectured and Yang tried to pay attention. She was sort of a number's girl, good at math and science, which were not Yang's best subjects. Her lower level remedial courses in college were proof of that bit of disability. After discovering Velvet's hidden talents Yang was quick to highjack her for all sorts of tutoring and other much needed help. It almost made the blonde feel bad, but Velvet seemed to have fun. Plus it gave them an excuse to talk together in the halls just the three of them. That included Blake.

"I'm going to be honest, I don't think I'll remember any of this conversation. Kind of got clocked in the head. Maybe we can have a major study session?" Yang asked kicking back in her casual wear, gym clothes packed into her bags, hair freshly washed and combed, and her ice pack replaced with a normal temporary eyepatch to hide the bruising. Explaining she had gotten a black eye in club and showing her mom were two totally different beasts for sure. She was already so paranoid that Yang wasn't taking care of herself enough to get a girlfriend. It was a little funny, being caught with a girl by her mom didn't change the endless harping on her to find a hubby in college, just transmuted it into finding a wife. Not that Yang couldn't find her joy in either sex, the equal opportunity heartbreaker she was, but that was for another make out session to be barged in on at another time.

"Alright, but I'd like it if Blake could join us." Yang nearly laughed in her face hearing that. It was cute though and the last thing she wanted to do was hurt sweet Velvet's feelings. One could only imagine how excited Velvet was to be assigned as Blake's dorm mate this semester. "It would be better to have at least a three person group than just me teaching you." Good at coming up with excuses, too. Velvet was going to go places. What places, Yang had no idea, but definitely places.

"Absolutely, sounds like a party!" Yang announced, feeling victorious as she stepped down the hallway from her late after class study session to the foreign program building. Ruby had to wait most of her day for classes, an hour even after her last class with Yang. Poor sis needed to get some wheels, but for now they needed a nice trip home, a big meal, and some sister bonding time.

"I don't believe you can just volunteer me," Blake argued from behind the two of them. Always a stickler for respecting time and personal space and all that garbage. Wasn't like she was going to say no anyways, did it matter if Yang acted as her spokesperson? "I will go if you apologize. Definitely need some help despite you being a little rude just to assume my schedule." Blake added a little touch of a girlish smile behind that comment. She loved irking Yang just a little bit.

"What? Too busy writing your Italian anime fanfi—" Yang couldn't finish with how quickly Blake shushed her, the redness of her flustered face the most delightful thing Yang had ever seen. Poor girl was so obsessed with hiding it she didn't even realize everyone from the dorms last year knew on top of Yang, Velvet included, but she was into cosplay so she seemed just as into the anime thing. Velvet even had that cute little brown and gold battle suit with the bunny ears from that one show the two of them watched. Yang didn't delve into that stuff as much as either of them, but she thought it was kind of cool and adorable how passionate they were about it.

"Fine, I'll go!" Blake shouted causing even Velvet to giggle a bit. "I so regret showing you that. We're in public." Angry Blake was a very rare and charming sight to see. Something Yang felt proud to unlock after a year of trying.

"I don't know why you bother hiding it. Seems dumb, it's your thing then it's your natural self. Be proud of that." Yang didn't feel like explaining her theories about Daoism to Blake right now and honestly she didn't get it herself really, but this writing stuff and lit was totally the minx's Doa. For anyone who was that passionate and committed to something, yet did it without hesitation, well that was the Wu Wei, effortless action.

"Well it's settled. Ruby's outside right? I'll just head to the dorms then if that's okay?" Velvet asked and everyone nodded in agreement. Yang had told Ruby to guard Bumblebee with her life, this late at night towing was actually a fear. 'The Glynda loves Yang shield' did have its limits.

"So that Pyrrha girl. She was amazing. I'm so glad she's on the team. I didn't even know we had a Physical Fitness Program, I should switch from Culinary… though my parents would probably kill me," Yang mused as they stepped outside one of the farther entrances. The night air was a sharp cool, pleasant even on Yang's refreshed self. Wind picking up beautifully, brushing through the outer gardens that lined the space between buildings and low light from the moon still bright on the stone structure. It was in these strangely atmospheric moments Yang remembered to appreciate exactly how beautiful her home was.

"You seem infatuated," Blake mentioned near soundlessly following Yang out. Though her question was loaded, her voice showed no hint of whatever it was loaded with. Her hips were moving in a sway that drove onlookers mad while she walked. The girl seemed even more impressive at night. Her being blended in, but seemed more there when you noticed her than any other time. A sort of invisible glow one could only see in the moonlight if they looked for it. Sort of Blake's natural state.

"Maybe," Yang admitted considering it, though not too seriously. "I want a bit more time with her before I can really say so. I'm not a love at first sight type of girl, not usually I mean." She noticed, between spotting her own past inconsistence, that they weren't walking. The two of them were just standing before the gardens in the night, tenseness to the conversation inescapable. Yang didn't know where it came from, but it was definitely there, choking the life from the moment.

"If you do, will you ask her out?" Blake asked, the question making Yang feel a little puzzled and sick, like a heavyweight was placed on her essence. This sounded complicated. Complicated emotions were among Yang's most disliked things. To her the world was about seeking out natural states. When you like something do it, when you don't, don't. Things like this couldn't follow the same rules.

"I get it, you're worried I won't pursue other people. Hey, I promised I wouldn't make things a problem… you know I'm sorry about what I did to make things so awkward after the festival. I just was under the wrong impression, just like I said." Blake was already walking away before Yang could finish her babbling bullshit. The blonde knew she was shoving her foot right into her mouth too, but how was lost to her somewhere in this dark parking lot path. Blake could be such an enigma, so often hiding what she felt about stuff in the dark away from Yang. It was that hiding that caused problems before. It made Yang guess wrong about the most important things. She was never very good at navigating the dark hidden parts of people.

"Hey Blake, what was with you bringing up last year's incident after the fight. I mean after I apologized you never brought it up before. I'm not mad, but you know I feel bad for causing such a huge fight and—" Whatever conversation would have happened ended right there. Blake stopped every motion in her body at once; instantly alert. Yang had never seen her look so tense, not for a long time. She was frightened by a sound; a red specter appeared in the garden corner, shivering slightly from a heavy wind.

"Yang! I've been waiting here for like thirty minutes! I'm freezing! Plus I really got to tell you about what Weiss and I did all day." It was Ruby, poor girl.

Blake eased back up and waved, her face was obscured by her bangs. She seemed distraught and didn't say a word. Just turned back to Yang and whispered, "See you tomorrow." There was no catching up to her.

"Hey sis. Sorry, got caught up." It was truth enough, though it didn't really scratch the surface of such.

"Oh my god, what happened to your face?!" Ruby looked so shocked, her grey eyes wide as could be imagined. Yang just laughed back, responding in the only way she knew how.

"Okay, so you know that Pyrrha girl. She is a total bad ass!"

*****Writing till 6:20 AM for the win! :D Hope everyone enjoyed the Yang chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Except for the fight, fights are hard as hell to write and I've done one in almost all of the chapters this yet D: Still I think I got a good idea of a real life Yang, what she would be like, what philosophy she should follow and attitude she should have, and how to make it feel different from Ruby. Also glad to just write someone a bit more mischievous :D**

**Though if you're worried, next chapter is all about Weiss and Ruby :P There will be more perspectives and times given to more sets of characters in the future and as you can already tell, some 'choices' have been made before Ruby's arrival that will show up in the future. :P**

**Special thanks to LazyKatze for the edits as always also check out layers her fantastic white rose A.U., also thanks to A-rav for help with the fight scene. . so much writer's block. And sorry for being a week late, a Physics test really threw me for a loop. Please leave a review to let me know how it came out and to help me in the future.  
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**Edit as of June 25. I'll be in an interview hosted by ff's own codyknight. Apparently there is a fan questions can be submitted on /r/Reiss/ if you're interested. Have a great night!**


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